1 Samuel 17:1a-49 (selected vv)
This morning we’re continuing to look at the beginnings of the Kingdom of Israel. So as we saw last week, David has been anointed by Samuel as King. He is now older, but still a boy and now working at the palace of King Saul.
In the chapter just before today’s reading, 1 Samuel 16, we read that Saul is becoming increasingly unstable with fits of rage and paranoia, and it is only the playing by David of his harp that soothes the unhappy King.
Though Saul is still on the throne, David knows that he is Israel’s next king. When summoned to soothe anxious King Saul (1 Samuel 16:14-23), David knows that however many they may be, Saul’s days as king are numbered.
The story line has been preparing us for David being someone very special in the eyes of God indeed. David is introduced to the reader way back in Ruth 4:17; in fact, the very reason the book of Ruth was written is so we would know that David is coming, and from whence he came. Boaz and Ruth’s great grandson.
Now there are so many different things we can take out of the story of David and Goliath, but today let’s look at what formed the nature of this boy warrior King. How did God prepare him? The answer is in last week’s reading, which said that when anointed by Samuel, “the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.”
This same Holy Spirit equipped David in his early life as a shepherd. Because we all now have access to this same Holy Spirit, our Lord can and will equip us as a parish as well.
So let’s walk with this teenaged David. He has no idea what awaits him when, obedient to his father, he sets out to check on his brothers on the battlefield. When David arrived, the grapevine was abuzz with the news that Saul was looking for someone to face the Philistine champion, Goliath.
The reward would be great. How could anyone pass up wealth, relief from taxes, and marrying the king’s daughter? The job was risky, but the reward was more than worth any potential risk, even death at the hand of the Philistine.
The eldest brother, Eliab, couldn’t hide his jealousy or disdain for his baby brother, David. After all, he was the eldest of Jesse’s sons. Shouldn’t he have been anointed king? David had come to the battlefield on behalf of his three elder brothers. Yet, Eliab readily rebuked David when he inquired about the reward for defeating Goliath.
David’s response in 1 Samuel 17:29, “What have I done now? It was only a question” makes it clear he has heard this type of insult from his brothers before. Undeterred, David volunteers for the job.
Goliath was a Philistine, meaning that he came from a culture that was comprised primarily of mercenaries, who wrought havoc from Syria to Egypt.
And among these Philistines, Goliath, was the fiercest warrior of the entire group. Goliath was the largest and strongest, very experienced in warfare, and prepared for both hand-to-hand combat with the sword as well as distance battles with his javelin or spear.
Despite his size, he would have had to be very quick and nimble. He also had an armor-bearer, presumably the best. Forty days of Goliath’s taunts had done their work. None of the Israelite fighters wanted to take on Goliath. His mere height along with his battle gear made him a formidable opponent.
Against this alpha-male, we have David, who was called a “boy” by both his own king (v.32) and enemy (v. 42). David had zero experience in war. He could hardly move when wearing armour. He was never trained in sword, nor spear, but had to rely on the home made sling of his own device, and stones from the gully or wadi.
David was the opposite of Goliath in every possible way!
Neither Goliath nor David held back as they goaded each other. Goliath taunts that he “deserves to be met by his equal”, David counters that he “has killed lions and bears and that Goliath will suffer a similar fate having dared to taunt the ranks of the living God.”
I reckon David was used to insults. He heard them regularly from his brothers. David is confident that Goliath is no match for him. Although Goliath didn’t know it, he is a marked man. It simply is no contest. His life would end today.
David turns Goliath’s words against him. Goliath’s threat to David as an individual becomes David’s threat to Goliath’s entire army in 1 Samuel 17:46-47:
Central, I think, to all this is David’s special background. As a tender of sheep, he was used to protecting the flock against renegade animals. No guns or mobile phones or help. A club and a sling. It’s easy to forget what would be required in a boy to deal with renegade bears and lions by himself.
It’s not that David was stronger than bears or lions, but the shepherd lifestyle helped shape David to focus on God. This is the man who wrote the 23rd Psalm, The Lord is my shepherd.
Imagine it, for much of your life you are alone and when taking care of a flock of sheep through their seasons of life, you are constantly witnessing the miracles of God through his sustaining of these sheep. Most importantly, the shepherding had fostered a deep sense of reliance on God for protection.
I believe that this is the crux of vv. 34-37, as David explains his background. David is not as tough as a bear, nor as strong as a lion. He knew he could not defeat these animals one on one, but he did know this, as he declared in v. 37, that “The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine.”
This season, this time, as a shepherd allowed David to naturally respond to Goliath’s taunts in v. 45 with “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”
One wonders, where did David get his confidence? For sure, it didn’t come from his family. No one, neither father nor brothers, called nor even considered David when Samuel visited his family looking for Israel’s next king.
Jealous and ungrateful, his brothers considered him of no account when he brought them provisions.
Like a child who escapes into music and books to escape drama at home, David found solace in his responsibilities as a shepherd, keeper of the family’s sheep. With no companions except God and the sheep, he finds his confidence in God.
This is not just any battle. This is a battle for the life and soul of Israel, an obscure nation, one that was barely on the horizon. When David wins with only a slingshot, it is a victory not just for David, but for the fledging nation as well. It is confirmation that God is David’s silent partner in this fight.
Within the subtext, this actually is a huge underdog story, but with Goliath, and not David, as the enormous underdog against the power of God. Although David is youthful, his confidence is well placed into divine hands. How else could the young shepherd manage to stand and defy the greatest warrior of his time?
Perhaps we enjoy these stories so much because we all face challenges that seem enormous against us. Following the courage of David does not begin in the Valley of Elah while facing the Philistine army. Rather, it’s the time David spent shepherding that is a crucial part of this narrative.
We can begin by focusing on the many ways of the past that God provided, sustained, and protected us as a parish up to now. That helps us then have a spirit filled confidence that God is doing a work as surely in Drayton Parish and each of our hearts as he did in David.
And then when we face that enormous giant; whether sickness, family breakups, financial disaster, addictions, shame, the same God who protected and provided will do the same thing for each of us and as a fellowship. It will be an unmitigated victory, standing with our warrior saviour who has already fought and won the battle, Jesus. Amen.